Operation Thu Do

Operation Thu Do was a South Vietnamese ARVN military operation of the Vietnam War which occurred in early 1965.

At the start of 1965, most of South Vietnam's regions were neutral, and the only two belligerent regions were Pleiku (held by the Southern government) and the Saigon capital region (mostly in Viet Cong hands). The ARVN sought to protect their capital of Saigon from enemy attack by clearing the Viet Cong out of the surrounding countryside, so they launched Operation Thu Do ("Capital Defense") to destroy the Viet Cong presence around Saigon.

The ARVN troops engaged in a massive shootout with the Viet Cong guerrillas in a rice paddy, offering the ARVN little cover as the Viet Cong fired on them from the treelines. Despite occasionally utilizing artillery support against the Viet Cong troops in the treeline, the ARVN troops in the paddies were overwhelmed and forced to retreat to a scorched forest. There, the ARVN successfully held out against several Viet Cong attacks and mortar attacks, with ARVN soldiers taking cover behind felled trees and picking off advancing Viet Cong fighters as they attempted to assault the new ARVN line. After holding out against several Viet Cong attacks, the ARVN placed their new defensive positions on lockdown, ensuring that they had secured the area. Rather than face an ARVN counterattack, the Viet Cong forces were forced to withdraw, and both sides claimed victory; while the ARVN forces had regained control of the whole Saigon region, they had suffered nearly twice the amount of losses that the Viet Cong suffered while also having less troops available to begin with.